Mayor announces funeral plans for Graham

Ocala Mayor Kent Guinn held a brief news conference Monday evening to talk about the death of Police Chief Greg Graham, who perished Sunday in a plane crash east of Dunnellon airport.

Guinn, speaking next to a memorial set up in front of the Police Department that include Graham’s department vehicle, offered no new details about the crash but said funeral services are planned for 10 a.m. Friday. He expects some 2,000 law enforcement officers to be on hand.

During the less-than five-minute news conference, Guinn said that Deputy Chief Mike Balkan would serve as acting chief indefinitely.

Graham died when his single-engine plane went down in a pasture along Southwest 140th Avenue east of the airport around 11:30 a.m. Sunday. He was flying alone.

Graham, 58, joined the Ocala Police Department out of the police academy in 1983 and served all but four years of his career here. He began as a patrol officer and enjoyed a steady string of promotions – to drug investigator, investigator in the intelligence unit, sergeant in the patrol unit, captain and then major.

He is survived by his wife, Amy, and three children, Tyler, Mark and Kalin.